This week, unfortunately, has little to show for it though I’ve been busy almost every waking moment…which means, it must almost be mid-term! The primary focus this week was our content creation project. Early on in the week, I helped Owen turn his writing guide on using evidence and weaving sources into a page in the History Lab and looked over his PowerPoint on common things students should double-check in their work. Both our guides from last week, as well as this PowerPoint, are now uploaded into the History Lab, unpublished, awaiting approval from Dr. Snyder as to what module they should reside in and whether they are worthy of publication.
My big project this week has been starting work on creating a visual Chicago Citation guide similar to the one produced by Valencia Community College for primary sources. So far, I’ve only completed a guide to citing primary sources within secondary sources. I wound up ordering a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition to double-check it against Evidence Explained since most students won’t have access to that particular resource. Evidence is based on the Chicago Manual, but all the same, it uses a slightly different methodology, so I want to ensure that I’m providing the best examples that I can. My method for creating the guides using a graphic design tool called Canva is a little slow. Since Dr. Snyder knows the creator of the Valencia guide, I may ask if she can find out what program they used to create theirs. I feel like there may be an easier method that could increase my output with these guides. I also want to discuss with Dr. Snyder which guides will be most useful for primary sources. Obviously, I will be creating one for manuscripts, works of art, letters, news articles, speeches, diaries, etc but what about other types of sources? I should think that artifacts should be included as well as oral histories, government publications, and possibly even scrapbooks. This might lead to dozens of different guides, which is ambitious, even for me. I want to narrow these down to the most used by UCF History students to start with so that I can focus my efforts there.
Owen and I will be meeting with Dr. Snyder later this afternoon to discuss working with her HIS 4150 students on their upcoming paper. I will also be asking her for her opinion on which citation guides she thinks would be most useful for them and which we can hold off on for now.
As far as actual tutoring, it looks like that may be happening sooner rather than later for Dr. Snyder’s History & Historians class. She told us in a previous call that she often entices her students into using resources like Owen and myself by offering extra credit to those who consult with a department tutor. I’m looking forward to helping students improve their writing and grades, though I must say, I’m a little daunted to be starting with an upper-level course as opposed to a survey level one. However, like most things I’ve done since going back to school, it may prove to be a “baptism by fire” which will undoubtedly bolster my confidence in my own skills.